The present invention relates to an operator-side system and a mode file identifying method, and more particularly, an approach of determining a mode file in response to the faulty condition that may be presently caused in the vehicle that outputs control parameters serving as recorded objects.
In the prior art, in order to identify the faulty condition of the vehicle, the data recording system for downloading the control parameter of the control unit equipped in the vehicle, and then recording such parameter is known. For example, in the data recording system in JP-A-2002-070637, first the operating conditions such as name of acquired signal, sampling rate, trigger mode, and the like are set. Then, various data (i.e., control parameters) in the control unit on the vehicle side are sampled based on the operating conditions on a time-series basis. Then, when the conditions under which the data that are useful for identifying the faulty conditions of the vehicle will be obtained are satisfied, the sampling data are stored in a data recording unit.
Further, JP-B2-2589617 discloses a vehicle failure diagnosis system. When this system holds a data communication with the electronic control device in the vehicle, such system can accept the failure code generated in the electronic control device. Then, the appropriate work schedule and the appropriate inspection approach are chosen among a plurality of work schedules and inspection approaches in answer to the failure code, and then they are displayed.
However, in case an operating conditions, i.e., a data contents to be recorded and a conditions, are not appropriately set for the data recording system, such disadvantages arise that the system records unnecessary data or conversely the system fails to record necessary data. For this reason, in the data recording system of this type, the operating conditions that are useful for identifying the faulty condition are determined in advance by an operator, and set. As the approach of determining the operating conditions, as disclosed in JP-B2-2589617, for example, the approach of referring to the diagnosis code generated in the control unit and then deciding the operating conditions in response to the diagnosis code may be thought of. Meanwhile, from the viewpoint of acquiring effectively the data, it is preferable that the faulty conditions should be subdivided and then the optimum operating condition should be set to deal with an individual faulty condition. However, when the faulty conditions are divided into parts, in some cases the diagnosis code does not always correspond to the faulty condition. Therefore, it is preferable that the operating conditions should beset after the faulty condition that is occurring in the vehicle is forecasted more specifically.